Where Do France's Jews Belong?

Ariel Sharon's belief that the Jews of France belong in Israel and ought to get there as soon as possible lest they fall victim to anti-Semitism gone wild has opened a major diplomatic row between France and Israel. But it's also a signal of deeper tensions on the question whether it is the "manifest destiny" of the almost two-thirds of the world's Jewish population who live outside of Israel to emigrate to that country to help maintain a Jewish majority.

The furor began when, in a speech to U.S. Jewish leaders, Sharon said that while he wanted all the world's Jews to move to Israel, in the case of France where they face "the wildest anti-Semitism" such a move was urgent and essential. France is home to Western Europe's largest Jewish community, numbering some 600,000. The condemnation of Sharon was swift and shrill, not only from the French government, but also from leaders of France's Jewish community who accused Sharon of pouring gasoline on the fire.

Seeking to explain Sharon's remarks, Israel's eloquent New York consul Alon Pinkas offered the following on CNN: "Israeli prime ministers, by definition, by their mission statement, and if you will, to borrow a term from your political culture, by their manifest destiny, are expected and required to ask Jews to come and live in Israel." The "manifest destiny" theme was reiterated by a number of current and former Israeli officials. Former Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, for example: "As you know Israel is a Zionist state. We always advocate that all Jews should return to Israel. This is not a new opinion."

But a belief in "manifest destiny" even over the preferences of Jews who choose to live elsewhere is driven not so much by pure ideology as it is by the demographic concerns of the Israeli leadership. Based on the territory currently under its control, Arabs will eclipse Jews as the majority inside Israel in the next ten to twenty years. Demographic concerns have prompted Ariel Sharon, since he first took office, to repeatedly stress his desire to bring 1 million Jews to Israel in the next ten years. But these days, of course, they're proving difficult to find.

According to Israeli figures, some 46 percent of the world's Jewish population live in North America, compared with 37 percent in Israel and 12 percent in Europe. Given the fact that North American Jews are, in the main, unlikely to emigrate any time soon, that leaves Sharon to seek his new immigrants mostly in Europe, the former Soviet territories and among the 350,000 Jews of Latin America and the 80,000 in South Africa.

The basic argument  as I learned it in the Zionist youth movement in South Africa  has been that Jewish life in the Diaspora is inherently unsafe, unfulfilling, and transient. Sooner or later, all Jews will realize that their destiny lies in Israel. But the demographic trends are showing the opposite: A majority of Jews when given the choice, have chosen to remain in the Diaspora. Not only that; a growing number of Israeli Jews appear to be choosing to join them. Late last year, the Israeli government revealed that some 760,000 Israeli Jews are currently living abroad, a number that has increased by 40 percent since the onset of the current Palestinian uprising in 2000. Last year's total Jewish immigration into Israel, numbering some 23,000, was a 15-year low. And even as Sharon insists that the safety of French Jews depends on immigrating to Israel forthwith, Israelis are flocking to European embassies to apply for EU passports. Indeed, concern for their personal security may be prompting more Jews to leave Israel than to settle there.

Germany, rather than Israel, is the preferred destination of Jews leaving the former Soviet territories today  a fact that has Zionist officials so steamed that they're calling on the Israeli government to pressure Germany to stop "enticing" Jews to settle there. The very fact that Jews leaving the former Soviet territories are being given a choice to go anywhere other than Israel appears to be unacceptable, since in the words of Jewish Agency chairman Sallai Merridor "this drastically effects immigration to Israel." Merridor appears oblivious to the irony in attacking Germany for making it easier for Jews to live there.

As a Jew who actually likes living in the Diaspora and sees no reason for immigrating to Israel, I'm made uncomfortable by comments such as Merridor's and Sharon's. My Uncle Adam and his family live in Paris, and have no desire or intention to leave. My cousin Cathy and her children live in Israel, and they, too, have no intention of leaving. I have family in South Africa, the U.S., Canada, Australia, Mexico, Poland and Scotland, all of whom have declined the option of living in Israel. Those who tell Jews like Cathy they don't belong in Israel are quickly seen as anti-Semitic. But I apply the same label to anyone who tells Uncle Adam that as a Jew he doesn't belong in France, or says the same thing to any of my relatives elsewhere in the Diaspora. "Go back to Israel" was a message I heard occasionally growing up, both from Zionist emissaries promoting immigration and from rightwing anti-Semites hostile to my anti-apartheid views, which they somehow mistook to be uniquely Jewish. Unlike Sharon, I can't accept that fighting anti-Semitism in France is futile, because I believe that a Jew's place is anywhere he or she chooses to live.